We got our new boom! It is longer (a little bit), stronger and heavier than our last one. Our plastic slides on our main sail didn't fit into the track on the new boom, so we sailed from Moss Landing to LA with a reef in the main, and when we got here we got in contact with a local sail repair guy who replaced all of our slides, and even picked up & dropped off our sail! We should be good to go in full working order when we leave LA for San Diego.
We caught a fish! Ian and I decided to put out the handline Monday afternoon. By about 4:30 or 5:00 when we hadn't gotten a bite, Tom was going to reel it in and put it away. I, however, had checked our fishing for cruisers book and read that on sunny days, you're more likely to get a bite in the late afternoon or early evening, so I told him we should leave it out for a while longer. We had rigged it so that the snubber (the rubber part that stretches when you get a bite so that the line itself doesn't take all of the immediate stress) was resting on the railing near the back of the boat, so that if and when we did get a bite, we would--hopefully--either hear or see the snubber disappear over the side. Sure enough, at about 5:30, while Koelby, Jessica, Tom and Ian were playing cards, I heard a small thud and when I looked back, the snubber was gone and the line was tight. I went to investigate and voila! there was definitely something on the line. I ran to get my gloves and Koelby and I reeled it in; I pulled in the line while he wrapped it around a 2x4. When we got it close enough, Ian slipped the gaff hook under its jaw and hauled our Bigeye tuna out of the water. We don't have a hanging scale, but we think it was around 35 lbs. I slit it up the belly and we pulled it on deck. Koelby gutted and filleted it and Matt and Ian threw it on the grill; it was very good.
We also went swimming while we were drifting for a couple days with no wind outside of LA. On Wednesday, the boys even rigged up an impromptu rope-swing attached to the spinnaker pole--for pictures of it, go check out Jessica's journal.
